It's never worked before (not for me, anyway) but sometimes I'm curious what's going on in Dating Land.
So last week I created a profile and now I'm trying to figure out how to respond to dozens of "Hi!" messages.

And could there be a Mr. Right behind one of these "Hi!" messages?
I haven't added a face pic yet, maybe I shouldn't do it.

Hi @Willie Oleson, I have had a profile on a dating site in the past, and I got to know some nice people there, some of them I have still contact with, and some of them i had a relationship with.

And to know if the prince on the white horse is there for you, waiting and seeing what happens, and the hundreds of messages you will receive with Hi will happen all the time but i'm not really impressed by that. To know if there is a nice person I can only tell you, read someone's profile well, see if there is enough information about that person, and also see if there are multiple photos. For me, no information and photo is a clear no, I will not continue with that person. For me, no pictures and information and only sexy pictures are a clear 'NO' to me, i will not continue with them.

And if there is someone who really likes you, then it should not be difficult to meet each other, but do not meet each other too quickly, but also do not wait too long.

These are the things I often pay attention to. Maybe you have something on.

Back in the 1990s, after my then girlfriend dumped me for another man, several of my friends encouraged me to try online dating because a year later I was still finding it difficult to move on from her.

At the time Yahoo! had a dating site, I think it was called Yahoo! Personals, so I put together a profile and uploaded a favourite photo of myself and thought I could just sit back and wait for the messages to come pouring in. Two weeks later, I didn't get a single message which made me feel even more unloved and unwanted before I created my dating profile.

Then I thought maybe I should be contacting the women on the site instead of expecting them to contact me. That's when I discovered most of the profiles on the site were either entirely fake, made by people just wanting to laugh at sad single guys like I was, or they were profiles of genuine people with fake photos (I always asked for a second photo to confirm they were genuine and invariably they would refuse to send one).

I know online dating has worked for hundreds of thousands of people but the experience was entirely negative for me. However, it did make me realise how hard it can be to meet the right person so I shouldn't feel bad about being single or beat myself up about it.

Forget the Eartha Kitt and Olivia Newton John songs and remember the lyrics of a Whitney Houston song: "learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all".

It's not the size of the pond you fish in but the quality of the fish that you want and can catch

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There's probably not much difference between straight and gay dating sites, we all have to do the same thing.

But why would you need a dating site in the first place?
You could meet a hundred women every day, basically all you have to do is to open door and step outside. I don't even know who's gay or not, so there's definitely a disadvantage.